


Five times Cora Hale thought Stiles and Derek were a couple and the one time she knew

by Firenation



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Crack, F/M, Fluff, Humour, Jealous!Stiles, M/M, Oblivious!Derek, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-04
Updated: 2013-08-04
Packaged: 2017-12-22 11:12:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/912519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firenation/pseuds/Firenation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It first occurs to Cora that her brother might have a boyfriend when Stiles comes over the loft and badgers Peter for information about Derek’s past. </p><p>Or, the one where Cora's confused and fed up because her brother's an actual idiot sometimes, Stiles has Taylor Swift issues and Derek just wants to be the best big brother ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five times Cora Hale thought Stiles and Derek were a couple and the one time she knew

**Author's Note:**

> This is canon from 3 x 09 through to 3B, but NO ONE ELSE DIES AND CORA STAYS, THOUGH IT WOULD BE AWESOME IF SHE WENT TO FIND JACKSON IN LONDON. I don't even know what this is, it's fluffier than that unicorn in Despicable Me. Also, I've got a feeling that Cora would be the Neville Longbottom of Teen Wolf, because she would get stuff done, and she might be my new favourite.

 

 

 

 Many thanks to my bud Steph for the cover art :D you are glorious. 

 

 

 

 

* * *

 

#1

* * *

 

It first occurs to Cora that her brother might have a boyfriend when Stiles comes over the loft and badgers Peter for information about Derek’s past.

She can’t help asking, “Why do you care?”

The list of perfectly valid reasons that Stiles lists off all fall flat, in any case.

He clearly thinks the world of Derek, if he thinks he can solve those problems. She remembers talking to Derek about who was pack, and he never mentioned this skinny, big-eyed kid, but he _feels_ like pack. He’s acting like pack; he’s there for Derek, comforts him, and even holds him up after what happened with Boyd.

No one really does that anymore, Cora notices, not since Derek’s their Alpha.

She remembers her mom never walked alone; she would squish up with her kids on the couch, she would sit on the porch swing with their dad every evening, head on his shoulder, and she relished group hugs after a trying full moon. She organised it so their full moons were _fun_ ; more a cause for celebration, than anything, because they would crowd around their battered television set, scoffing down food they’d made that week and watching a film that they took in turns to pick out. The last one they watched was a Hugh Grant film, and when it comes on the TV one afternoon, she turns it off right away, feeling sick. Cora remembers eating lumpy cookies and burnt cupcakes that she’d made in home ec and it makes her feel hollow.

She feels even worse when she sees how alone Derek is.

But maybe she was wrong. The way Stiles’s face contorts throughout the story, his scent even a little bitter with jealousy, sometimes, not to mention the way he _cries_ over Derek and Paige. Hell, he’s not the only one, but Cora’s crying because this is some Nicholas Spark shit (she’s catching up, slowly, with pop culture, and she’s currently on movies and books. She gave up with music after the Sexyback debacle of last Thursday) whereas Stiles is crying because of Derek. Not the both of them.

He also has this face after the story, and it’s not because Peter’s up to something; she was talking about the _heart eyes_ he’s currently sporting _._ Fucking _heart eyes._ Over her brother.

Cora thinks that it’s oddly adorable, and she really likes Stiles; she secretly thinks that if Laura was here, too, they could make Derek’s life living hell. She wants that.

She’s finding it difficult to fall back into Derek’s space, now. He always used to spend an absurd amount of time in the bathroom, just on his hair, and he’s gotten worse; he spends _an hour_ in there, saying ' _I'm_ the alpha' and using more gel than is really necessary on his barnet. He doesn’t eat proper food, just protein shakes and meat and vegetables and he doesn’t. Drink. Soda. _At all._

He also doesn’t use the right brand of toothpaste. He uses _Crest,_ for God’s sake _._ He also uses all the hotwater and lends her clothes that do not fit, but doesn’t have the time to take her shopping, because he’s a douche. She has to ask Peter to take her shopping, which is an experience that she tries to repress, though he does have a Macy’s discount, as he now works there. He doesn’t buy her anything wearable, just a prom dress, and she can’t shake off the feeling that something is very wrong.

Derek’s distant from her, too, in a way that he never used to be; he’s hesitant, and Cora can see he’s waiting for the other shoe to drop, like she plans on going anywhere now that she’s with her family again. It’s not like she wanted to stay away; the Alphas had taken her, after Peter had dragged her out of the house and passed out in the forest, and she’d been trapped by them for too long.

She had to get over her initial, crushing disappointment that Derek wasn’t Laura, though, because this was her _sister_ , her best friend in the entire world, and she resents Derek for a while for not coming to find her, when she used to dream about Laura and Derek rescuing her.

This is until she watches her brother fall apart when Boyd dies, when she gets hurt, when Stiles gets hurt, and she thinks that they might be able to push past this mess. Just maybe, especially when the Alpha pack scatters, and it occurs to her that she can have a life in Beacon Hills again, with her big brother, who’s awesome sometimes, like when he buys her favourite brand of cereal and lends her his clothes.

But she’ll only stay if he changes to skimmed milk, who the _fuck_ in their right mind drinks soya?

**  
**

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#2

* * *

 

Cora realises her brother is a total moron a little while after that.

It’s in the middle of a pack meeting (though to call it a pack is an overestimation, it’s more like a sketchy assortment of people shoved together unwillingly) and Ms Blake- their English teacher, judging by Stiles’ _what the fuck is our English teacher doing here, is this because I didn’t hand in that paper on Monday_ \- has dropped by to see Derek.

Cora just knows that she was the Darach (whatever that means, she has to fight back the urge to say bless you whenever she hears it), she killed a bunch of people, but Derek’s still dating her, as she gave up the evil habits, apparently. Clearly Stiles thought Derek would stop dating her. It’s not like her brother really talks to her about that kind of crap.

He looks startled, with a dash of pleased and embarrassed, but it’s difficult to figure out what he feels like, because Stiles just starts pouring out an assortment of emotions so thick and hot, Cora feels dizzy. If she thinks that she’s not impressed, that doesn’t come remotely near to what Stiles is feeling. Derek throws him a look, but he just clenches his jaw and continues to glare balefully.

He doesn’t stop glaring until she leaves, Derek in tow, and Cora notes that his hands are shaking.

Derek comes back later, and Stiles’s back stiffens. Cora feels like she should warn her brother that he’s about to get yelled at, but she doesn’t have the heart to ruin what she feels will be an awesome smack down, at the hands of Stiles Stilinski.

“What?” Derek grunts, when he stands just behind Scott, peering over his shoulder to look at the plans for the Argent apartment building.

Stiles’s face floods with scarlet and he stalks into the kitchen. The others roll their eyes when Derek follows him in, like this is a regular occurrence. Cora is intrigued.

“Is this something they always do?” She whispers to Scott. He just shrugs and goes back to talking to Isaac about the matter at hand.

The words in the kitchen are indecipherable, through the walls, and she feels like being a Peter or Derek-level creeper, so she goes to stand just behind the doorway.

“Are you _kidding_ me?” Stiles hisses, inches away from Derek’s face. Cora feels like she shouldn’t be watching this private moment, like she’s intruding, and that’s only partially due to the scents both Derek and Stiles are emitting. “She killed Heather, not to mention like twelve other people in town. She was going to _kill_ my _dad_ , Derek, I don’t _understand_ what about that you don’t get.”

 “But she didn’t,” Derek says, and Stiles looks at him incredulously, like he’s the most stupid and irritating human being he’s ever had the misfortune of meeting. Cora briefly remembers how he looked at Lydia, that time at the school, and realises that Stiles is in love with her brother.

“She tried to get Scott, Boyd and Isaac to kill themselves so _you_ would be _isolated_.” Stiles sounds like the mayor of furious town. It’s a little frightening.

“She’s different now,” Derek protests, in a voice that leaves little room for argument. “And this is nothing to do with you.”

The looks they’re giving each other suggest that Derek’s love life _is_ to do with Stiles.

Her brother continues giving heated looks, and Stiles flushes, and gives _come fuck me_ eyes that are strangely Bambi like.

This is awkward.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#3

* * *

 

Cora’s basically killing time, now she’s received her offer for early admission to Syracuse. She’s got nothing to do but kick back and watch her brother and Stiles make fools out of themselves, read a little, work out and pretend not to be invested in the new pack and the dimples and fang combination that Ethan and Danny seem to be pulling off, or the polyamourous thing going on between Scott, Isaac and Allison, nor the epic Lydia and Jackson long-distance love. It's better than a soap opera. 

She reads a lot. Stiles has a good collection of books and he drops off a new one for her every week. She pretends that she doesn’t see Derek reading them when she’s not.

Now that Ethan switched sides, and Kali ran off with Ms Morrell, the Alpha pack’s not quite the force it used to be, but they still lurk on the fringe of things. Derek makes Stiles do research for them, one week-end, when they scrawl a new symbol into the old Hale house (it basically just means _cheerio fuckers, we're off_ , according to an amused Stiles).

Cora can’t go near the Hale house without feeling ill, but Derek goes there often, like he likes to remind himself that it happened. It’s the knife he falls back on.

He snaps at Stiles to do research and Stiles fumes, calls him a selfish jackass, and slams out of the pack meeting. Cora watches with raised eyebrows, and doesn’t understand what else her brother’s done now. Besides continuing to date a probably psychotic mass murderer that once threatened Stiles’s dad, not to mention killed his childhood friend, watched on as the Alpha pack killed Boyd and hurt Cora, when she could have done something, and almost forced his brother to kill himself.

She’s impressed that Stiles even manages to talk to Derek civilly.

She kind of has to, as a sister and all, but she does eat Derek’s cereal and put the box back empty just to fuck with him.

 

It’s not actually that civil, the way he addresses Derek. It’s the way equals address each other, and she’s not surprised that Derek just takes the shouting, like it’s nothing he hasn’t heard before.

Derek still bitches at the fact Stiles didn’t shower, when they drop in on him that weekend, to check up on research. Stiles looks stressed and exhausted and Cora kinda wants to feed him hot food and make him sleep, though she blames her alphas’ feelings for that little attempt at domesticity.

“I hope you’re pleased,” Stiles snaps. He smells furious. “My dad’s best friend’s daughter’s wedding is tomorrow, and she has three younger sisters, all equally hot, I might add, and I should be _there._ So he’s mad and I’m grounded. So yeah, I planned on stewing in my douchery for three days straight, if you don’t mind.”

Cora nods knowingly. She hates showering. Mostly because Derek’s shower is shit (it’s ice cold and like a freaking stream) but she understands what he means.

Derek’s probably not just annoyed at the fact that Stiles is dirty, but not showering concentrates your natural scent; she’s seen the way Derek’s nose flares around Stiles. She knows that he thinks he smells good, because Derek’s stupidly obvious, and this is probably agony for him.

Cora thinks it’s Karma. Derek taped over her Pokémon, once. When she was eight. She swore she would never forgive him, and guess what?

She hasn’t.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#4

* * *

 

One weekend in April, Derek takes Cora to the lake, sits her down and asks about her plans for college, with a look on his face that could be deemed paternal, which is ridiculous. She shoves him into the lake.

He’s dripping wet when he claws his way out, and she can’t stop laughing, even when he yanks her in after him. He ruins her cell-phone, but they have a: _I can’t believe this thing is my sibling_ kind of moment, and it makes Cora- though she would never admit it- happy, because the last time she had one of those, she was ten, and Laura made her wear a dress _and_ heels to her school’s class formal.  

It’s even funnier when he steps inside his soccer mom car and leaks all over the upholstery.

She gets him to buy McDonald’s (because she’s a wonderful lycanthropic being) for the pack, and calls an impromptu meeting back at the loft. They’re all there when they arrive; Lydia and Stiles pick through Derek’s book collection, while Isaac and Scott frown at Peter’s presence, because they don’t like him, and Allison sharpens her arrowheads, glaring at Peter. Peter’s drinking green tea, oblivious to their glares.

Stiles’s eyes lock in on Derek when they step through the door, and he gives off a scent that’s spicy and filled with lust, and it’s gross. Derek looks uncomfortable, but he’s giving off a similar scent at just Stiles, so he can’t exactly talk.

“We would have excellent sex,” Stiles says, almost like an afterthought. Derek’s face is something to see; shocked, flushing, mouth open much like the boy who just spoke.

Stiles blinks, horrified, mouth working like he’s trying to get more words out, but they’re stuck in his throat. He coughs, covering his bright red cheeks with his hands, and ducks out of the room. Cora can hear him repeating, ‘ _oh my god, oh my god’_ in the kitchen, banging his head against the cupboards. She doesn’t think he’s doing it hard enough to actually injure himself, but she can’t be certain.

Derek isn’t much better. His eyes are wide, almost comically so, and he hasn’t closed his mouth yet. His hands are shaking.

Both their heartbeats are going a mile a minute.

Cora just rolls her eyes, steals the keys for Derek’s Toyota and gives them a few hours to do whatever the fuck they want to do. The pack follows, of course, because Derek’s eyes had flared red, and his scent had released enough pheromones to make even the humans uncomfortable.

She finds the nearest Macy’s and convinces herself that the sales assistants won’t bite (it’s ironic because Peter’s a Macy’s retail assistant in the next town over). She’s sick of dressing in Derek’s clothes, but the wardrobe she picks out isn’t much better, she begrudgingly admits; dark jeans, Henleys, v-neck dark t-shirts, the occasional hoodie.  Laura would be ashamed.

She uses Derek’s credit card to buy a stack of books, too, because she doesn’t want to lose her brain entirely; the Alphas had her educated at a boarding school for six years, trapped in their web, but she graduated early. College seems like a foreign concept, in her world, but she remembers Laura applying for Syracuse, and she wants to follow in her footsteps.

Cora sits in the library downtown for a couple of hours and reads, until she deems it safe enough to go back to the apartment.

She’s surprised that when she returns the loft doesn’t reek of sex, but she’s impressed at her brother’s control. Given that Stiles is only seventeen.

He looks frustrated, though that’s to be expected, of course.

She can’t look him in the eye, even so. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#5

* * *

 

It’s on the way back from the grocery store that Cora smells a new scent around the loft.

It’s familiar, and it unnerves her. The one thing she’s been able to rely on, since she came back to Beacon Hills, is that nothing is familiar. Her brother doesn’t smell the same, but intrinsically different, and Peter isn’t anything like Peter used to be.

She’s drawn to the loft like an insect to an open flame, leaving Derek, Stiles, Scott and Isaac downstairs with the meat, vegetables and ice cream.

Standing in the centre of the loft, eyes wide as she surveys the apartment, is a total stranger.

Cora growls, shifting her stance. The girl’s head whips to Cora and she grins for a second, before making her expression as blank as a piece of paper.

Stiles stumbles into the loft behind her, and the girl _grins_ again. The smile is familiar, and it’s disconcerting for it. Cora can’t place it.

“Papa?” The girl says, startled. Cora sees her face relax and backs off, a little. She turns to look at Stiles, and his face is something to behold.

Stiles looks like he’s going to puke. “I’m a parent?”

The girl flushes. “Shit. I’m sorry.”

“For being my daughter? How bad am I at parenting?” Stiles scoffs, trying to laugh it off. The girl’s eyes soften.

“You’re the best,” she says truthfully. Her eyes glance around. “Where’s dad?”

Stiles’s eyebrows fly towards his hairline.

Cora doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry, because she knew she wasn’t imagining it. This girl- she looks like Stiles enough, with her lips and eye shape, even the way she talks, but she’s a Hale. Cora can recognise it in the way she moves, rolls her eyes at everything, her eyes are a shade between Derek’s green and Stiles’s brown, and her nose- she’s got Laura’s nose. She’s got Cora’s shape.

She’s also wearing a leather jacket, black pants and a Ramones t-shirt.

Cora wants to say she doesn’t love this girl instantly, but hey. She always wanted to be an aunt.

It’s at this opportune time that Derek stalks into the apartment, clutching the groceries, and glaring at Cora because she left him to carry them by himself. She gestures at the girl as her motivation. He frowns.

“Who’s this?”

Cora remembers Laura constantly bitching at Derek to make his tone nicer, when he speaks to strangers, and she realises that she’s going to have to pick up this habit.

“Dad?” the girl sputters, and Cora thinks the best part of all this is that Derek-alpha werewolf with impeccable reflexes- drops the groceries.

 

She tells them that she’s from the future-Derek looks intensely surprised that he has a future, which Stiles glares at- and that she can’t tell them anything.

“Spoilers,” she grins, and Cora understands that reference. Derek rolls his eyes, but that’s only because he hates Sci-Fi, and Cora made him watch _Doctor Who_ with her, because Stiles recommended it.

“I was just pulling a prank with my friend, Chris, and it brought me here,” she explains, spreading her hands. “Am I going to die?”

“Not right now,” Stiles says. “But when you get back home and we figure out you pulled this, you might. Derek’s probably really strict. As a parent.”

Derek growls at Stiles and he rolls his eyes. As per normal.

“You’re both pretty strict, actually.”

“Because you pull crap like this, maybe?” Derek mutters gruffly, and Stiles laughs.

The girl just smirks. She notices how Stiles smirks similarly, and thinks, _this is gonna be hilarious._

Cora’s right. This is hilarious. Mostly because it’s actually painful to watch.

Derek is a surprisingly good parent. He buys her food, gets an airbed for himself and she sleeps in his bed; he buys her magazines and books and never leaves her alone.

Stiles is awkward, not that that’s unsurprising, because his daughter is older than him, how weird is that? He brings her films she needs to watch, if she’s going to be related to him, and Cora notices how his eyes turn wet sometimes, when he looks at her.

She hears Stiles tell Derek quietly that she looks like his mom, and feels awful.

When they’re altogether- Stiles, Derek and the girl- her name’s Alex- it’s just plain adorable. Cora takes a picture when they all fall asleep together, Stiles and Derek’s heads on top of hers, curled into one devastatingly cute family. She sends it to each pack member and prints one out for the fridge.

Alex doesn't tell them her full name, besides the Alex and Stilinski-Hale (hyphenated and everything) because apparently it's Polish and impossible to pronounce. She glares bitterly at Stiles about this, and he just laughs and ruffles her hair, says 'it builds character'. She tells him to shut the hell up and Derek makes her wash the soccer mom car as an apology. It's not like it's blatantly obvious that Stiles is Alex's absolute favourite though, because she keeps smiling at him and hugging him and laughing really hard at his jokes, which she says is just 'habit', but Cora knows better. 

When they’re altogether- Stiles, Derek and the girl- her name’s Alex- it’s just plain adorable. Cora takes a picture when they all fall asleep together, Stiles and Derek’s heads on top of hers, curled into one devastatingly cute family. She sends it to each pack member and prints one out for the fridge.

Alex hugs the Jeep when she sees it and calls it her baby. Stiles looks smug and tells Derek, 'see, I told you she had it in her to last for years'. Derek just rolls his eyes and asks hopefully that she likes Camaros, right? Maybe even Mercedes?

She even has Derek's Top 40 taste in music, and Cora is ashamed to call them relatives of her own. 

She automatically goes to do the washing up after every meal, because it's habit, and she takes out the trash. It seems Derek has a chore rota at home, and that will never not be hilarious to Cora, because parent!Derek sounds like an A+ parent.

Alex stays very, very still when she sees a spider, and Cora remembers Derek's irrational fear over spiders, and feels irrationally gratified. 

Cora watches Stiles and Derek hiss at each other in the kitchen about giving her the sex talk, dear god, while she and Alex sit in the living room watching the newest episode of _Breaking Bad._

“Do you think I should tell them I’ve already had sex, or...” Alex muses, gesturing back to her parents, where Stiles sounds like he's practically hyperventilating. 

“Nah,” Cora says with a nonchalant wave of her hand. “It’ll be more fun this way.”

Alex nudges her shoulder and steals another handful of popcorn. Cora’s totally getting aunt of the year.

 

They try to keep Lydia away from their child for exactly two days, before she comes storming in when Cora sends her a picture text of her reading, face scrunched  _exactly_ like Stiles's. Lydia looks immeasurably excited and Alex beams when she sees her. 

"Aunt Lydia!" She coos and hurls herself at Lydia. She's comically tall in comparison, almost five ten, and they just look so adorable together, Cora thinks she grows a cavity just looking at the pair of them. "Where's uncle Jackson?"

Lydia's eyebrows fly towards her hairline, but she smiles. "London."

Alex bites her lip and looks disappointed, and she tells Cora later that Jackson's her favourite uncle, but she would never tell Scott that, because she's one hundred per cent certain that he would cry like a little girl if he knew.

Lydia takes her out for lunch and some light shopping, and Cora pretends not to be a little insulted that she's not invited. 

She feels better when she learns that they get pulled over for speeding on the way back into town, but her mood falls when she notices Alex's puffy, red eyes and the way she solemnly goes to her room. 

"What did you do?" Cora hisses to Lydia, hand just a little too tight on her wrist, because maybe, just maybe, Alex has grown on her. She's her _niece_.

"We got pulled over by the sheriff," Lydia says shortly. "He saw her, and you know how she looks, and he cried."

The fact that she looks like the sheriff's dead wife goes unspoken. 

Cora goes upstairs and holds her baby niece in her arms for a little while. The girl may be a Hale through and through, but she's a Stilinski too. 

In fact, she's a Stilinski-Hale, which is even better. 

All five of them- Lydia, Cora, Alex, Derek and Stiles- eat dinner, which is take-out, because Derek's feeling lazy, and they talk about the pack in Alex's future, which is established and full and perfect, apparently. It contrasts shockingly with what they have right now, but when Alex talks about eating cookies and watching  _Lord of the Rings,_ Cora feels warmth flood through her. 

Derek and Stiles look at each other a lot, that evening, surprised and impressed, like 'what a badass team we make'. Alex mutters about hearing 'My heart will go on' when they look at each other in all fucking timezones, and Stiles chokes on his soda, which is both hilarious and disgusting. 

Lydia comes over more often after that, bringing supplies of books and coffee, and they educate Alex so she doesn't fall behind. She tells them that she's early admission Stanford, and Cora maybe tears up a little. Whatever. 

 

Alex is an instant hit with the pack, surprising absolutely no one. She borrows Isaac's scarf, and he  _lets_ her. Scott sneaks her into the vet's practice, and lets her cuddle the puppies. Allison shows her how to shoot her bow, and Alex laughs sheepishly, told her that she already showed her how to use one when she was nine. Derek goes pale at that and goes for a strong, Wolfsbane influenced beer. Cora hears Stiles tell Derek that he's going to be a great parent, look how awesome their kid turned out, and Cora gets some dirt in her eye that makes her cry. That is all. 

Alex adores Ethan and Danny, and persuades Danny to show her how to hack into the school's system, and Ethan teaches her how to do multiple backflips. 

Stiles and Derek watch with pinched, worried expressions on their faces, and Cora officially thinks that their family is ridiculous. 

 

She’s pretty sure she shouldn’t tell Alex that her father’s currently dating an ex-Darach, but she does anyway. She’s not going to lie to her favourite niece.

Alex keys Ms Blake’s car two weeks later, and Cora absolutely does not help. She doesn’t break off a door mirror either. Stiles doesn’t high five them and buy them ice cream afterwards. Those are things that don’t happen.

 

And if Stiles’s Taylor Swift-esque meltdown over Jennifer wasn’t enough, Alex just adds to the problem. She hangs around on the couch while Derek’s choosing what to wear for his dates, and makes the most critical eyebrows Cora’s ever seen, on a face that isn’t her own, at least.

It all comes to a head one Friday when Stiles isn’t even there, but Alex is. Derek’s in the bathroom and Jennifer knocks at the door to pick him up. He yells for Cora or Isaac to get the door, but Alex is surprisingly swift for a human, and beats her to it.

Cora watches in amusement as she yanks the door open. Because she knows Stiles will want to see this, she pulls out her cellphone and starts recording.

Ms Blake’s face is indescribably surprised when she sees Alex.

“Hi,” she looks uncertain, but to her credit, she smiles brightly. “I’m here for Derek? I’m Jennifer?”

“Oh, you’re the doctor, right?” Alex laughs carelessly. Hurt flashes briefly across Ms Blake’s face and Cora just bites her lip to keep back the laughter. She knew showing her _Sherlock_ was a mistake, but Stiles insisted.

 “Um, I’m actually a-”

“No, no, let me get it! I’ll remember,” Alex’s smile is so charming; Cora definitely knows that’s not a Hale smile. The Hales can’t smile with their teeth and look sane. This girl is Stiles through and through. Cora is so proud.

“Okay, I can get this, math’s my best subject.” She cracks her neck like she's preparing herself for a marathon and begins to count on her thin fingers. “You’re not the doctor, but after her there was the optometrist?” She pauses thoughtfully. “Then the actress, then that baseball player, the writer, the dancer, and I think the writer again?”

“Then there was...the psychic?” She grins at Ms Blake’s face, which has lost all colour. “You’re the psychic. Process of elimination, right?”

“I’m a teacher,” she corrects, voice  quiet.

“Oh,” she grins again. “He didn’t tell me about you. Kinda screwed up the whole process, huh?”

“I don’t know who you are,” Ms Blake says, smiling in a way that’s supposed to be nice. Cora thinks she should run while she still can.

“I’m his daughter,” she says gently, and Cora knows that she’s won. “But don’t worry, he doesn’t tell me about first dates. It’s only when they mean something, that’s when he lets me know.”

“This is our seventh date,” Ms Blake says to her shoes. Cora almost feels bad.

Alex laughs, sporting a comical grimace, which is one hundred per cent entirely Stiles, and raising her eyebrows, which are practically non-existent in comparison to Derek's, but she uses them as weapons too, so there's that. “Whoops; don’t know what to tell you, then. Good luck with _that._ ”

This is the point at which Derek walks out from the bathroom and looks with horror at Alex. He shoots Cora an incredulous look and she just shrugs, as if to say, _you expect me to tell a Stilinski-Hale what to do? Get real._

 “Jennifer,” Derek says pleasantly, before he turns to glower at his daughter. She grins brightly at him. “Alex, shouldn’t you be doing homework?”

“Yeah,” Alex muses. “I was just going to call papa and ask for some help. You’ve got his number, haven’t you? Speed dial number one?”

Derek flushes, and Cora actually sniggers. She figures no one’s supposed to know that Stiles is his number one on speed dial, but Cora’s always been nosy. Interested, she calls it. Derek shoves his phone at her and gives her a grumpy kiss on the forehead. She smiles nicely at Ms Blake.

“Maybe I could call you mom?” The innocent Bambi eyes are pure Stiles. Cora can’t begin to describe how much love she has for this child. She wants to cry with laughter at how horrified Derek looks. “Mommy? Mama?”

Ms Blake looks furious, and Cora realises that her brother’s going to get dumped. Ouch.

Alex calls out _bye, mommy dearest_  when they finally leave, and Cora has to call Stiles, because his future self has raised his child correctly. 

 

“You are grounded,” Derek says flatly, when he returns from their date. He’s got wine down his dress shirt and he’s wearing some salad, and Cora wrinkles her nose.

Cora has a newfound respect for Ms Blake; she threw her salad and her wine. Girl’s got skills.

Stiles is now sitting between Cora and Alex, and he looks surprised at Derek’s state of undress. He laughed until he cried when he saw the video and hugged Alex hard. He scolded her, for propriety’s sake, but he kept snorting with laughter and muttering, ‘mommy, oh my God’.

Alex pouts. “I didn’t do anything. I was just testing her perseverance.”

“Just go to your room, alright?” Derek sighs. Alex rolls her eyes but does go to bed, but not before kissing both her parents on the cheek. She gives Cora a surreptitious high five. Cora notes that Stiles winks at her but masks it with a disappointed expression.

Cora sits back and eats a mouthful of popcorn.

“I’m sorry,” Stiles winces, face sheepish. He gets to his feet and gingerly pulls a leaf out of Derek’s hair.

“I guess it’s father like daughter,” Derek says wryly, and Stiles flushes and sputters.

Cora chokes back laughter.

 “It’s not your fault,” Derek says, voice wearier than Cora has ever heard it. “I- it should have ended earlier.”

The look on Stiles’s face clearly reads that he agrees, but he stays silent. It’s a testament to Stiles, really, that he reins in whatever sarcastic retort he’s just dying to say.

“I’m gonna go home.” Stiles says, when Derek just stares at him thoughtfully for a full minute, without even blinking. Jeez, her brother has it bad. It’s so pathetic, it’s not even that funny anymore.

She hugs her brother hard when his face falls, after Stiles leaves.

She can’t remember the last time she hugged him.

She’s forgiven him for the taping over the Pokémon, by the way.

 

Alex and Cora definitely do not don ski masks, borrow Lydia's car and play Taylor Swift's 'We Are Never Getting Back Together' on a boom box on repeat outside Ms Blake's house the night after that. Stiles doesn't nod with understanding and grin and give them cupcakes as a reward. Those are things that don't happen. 

 

Alex goes back home three weeks later. She told them that the spell would last, at maximum, a month, and Deaton had agreed; she was right.

She tells them that she’s always right and Stiles nods, grinning, like _I brought this to the genetic mix. I fucking rock._

She talks to Stiles for a minute, the sound of Stiles’ iPod erasing their words, and Derek’s basically shaking with impatience.

Stiles looks pale and like he’s going to vomit when he gets out. He looks straight at Derek, like he can’t believe something, and Derek looks steadfastly back.

Cora hugs her niece, then Derek does, with a cute kiss to her forehead, and Stiles gives his daughter a high five and a giant hug. She disappears in the middle of that hug, and Stiles almost falls flat on his face. Derek catches him and they stare at each other.

Cora notices that they’re holding hands, but doesn’t want to jinx anything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#+1

* * *

 

“Fucking _unicorns_ ,” Lydia hisses, face almost unrecognisable under the layer of mud kicked up by said unicorns. Cora stifles a laugh when she notes that she’s still got unicorn guts in her hair.

It’s not time for laughter, however, when Stiles’ guts are still spilling out, filling the air with the scent of copper. Derek’s face is taut with emotion, and he keeps telling Deaton to do something, with the air of someone deeply close to a diva-esque meltdown.

Scott’s not much better. He keeps pacing and biting his lip and searching out Isaac’s hand. Allison’s got Isaac’s arm wrapped around her, and Cora doesn’t know how their relationship works, but she’s obscurely glad that no pack member is alone.

It’s not like Cora needs to be tied down. She’s going to Syracuse in a week.

And Lydia? Well, Lydia’s going to Harvard, but she’s got that pretty boy back in London, anyway.

She hears Danny and Ethan pull up at the back of the practice, and they hurtle in, join the list of pack members interrogating Deaton, and choose- wisely- to stay silent and pace just behind Scott.

Derek’s a mess.

Deaton stops the bleeding and patches up Stiles in record time, before announcing that it’s pretty late- he suggests, in a voice that doesn’t leave much room for interpretation- that they should leave, if they want to get up for school the next morning.

Cora and Lydia shoot them smug looks- they’ve both graduated early, because they are flawless, thanks- as they file out. Scott refuses to leave, but admits defeat and does some cleaning up, instead, but Isaac and Allison leave demanding _regular_ text updates, Derek.

Stiles sleeps soundly on the table. He’s going to Stanford next week, and Cora didn’t tell him how relieved Derek was when he turned down NYU, and how pleased he was when they bought an apartment in Palo Alto together, because they are the epitome of domesticity and fluff.

Cora and Lydia sit on a bench just behind the operating table, and both fall asleep embarrassingly quickly. Chasing a unicorn pack around the woods is freaking exhausting, as it turns out.

Cora comes to with a mouthful of Lydia’s hair when Stiles’s heartbeats picks up, like he’s awake.

She blinks her eyes open and looks at her brother and his boyfriend. Derek’s wearing a stupidly smitten expression (she couldn’t picture smitten on her brother’s face, and she never wanted to, it’s _disgusting_ ) and Stiles is smiling faintly, eyes half-lidded.

Her brother places a small kiss on Stiles’s lips, and she watches as he cries into his shoulder. Stiles shifts on the cold metal table, and pulls Derek into his arms, muttering about big bad wolves and sourwolves, which makes Derek snort with laughter.

They clutch each other, and Cora thinks they’re disgusting and adorable, and she kind of loves them for it.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. I realise that Jennifer (badass that she is) isn't supposed to be staying for 3B (I think) but one of my friends was trying to picture how her and Derek would work as a normal couple, now knowing that she is the Darach, and my brain started to hurt. I don't hate the character, however, and Haley Webb is flawless, so do with that what you will.  
> 2\. Cora's my favourite new character for season 3, I think (I've got a weakness for Ethan though) and I just wanted to fill in some of the cracks about her, though I'm sure Jeff Davis will do the same. Eventually.  
> 3\. Hit me up on tumblr: stilinskihaleandpack if you have any questions.  
> 4\. uH, thank you for reading <3  
> 5\. Oh, and Cora and Alex are little shits, but hey. They, much like the Teen Wolf fandom, are protective over Derek. Personally I want to give him a blanket and soup.


End file.
